Cage Help! My girl turned out to be a boy!

[GuineaPigKrazy]

It is Yesterday's News litter that you can find at Petco

 

[VanillaTwilight]

If he is a month old, he isn't NEARING the age of reproduction, he is there. Males generally can impregnate a female at 3 weeks of age.

Everyone else already mentioned why keeping them outside isn't a good idea so there's no need for me to add my two cents on it. I just urge you to read over the reasons given by members here as to why keeping them inside is a much better/safer option.

Oh, sorry. My vet gave me a sheet saying that they reach the age of reproduction at around two months, so I was confused.

 

[VanillaTwilight]

It is Yesterday's News litter that you can find at Petco

Oh, okay. Thanks!

 

[Aleks]

Oh, sorry. My vet gave me a sheet saying that they reach the age of reproduction at around two months, so I was confused.

You might want to consider looking for a new vet. Is the vet you go to now a dog and cat vet?
Males can impregnate females as early as 3 weeks and females can become pregnant as early as 4 weeks.

This link has some questions you can ask a vet when you call to help you figure out whether or not they are cavy savvy: https://www.guinealynx.info/vet.html

 

[VanillaTwilight]

You might want to consider looking for a new vet. Is the vet you go to now a dog and cat vet?
Males can impregnate females as early as 3 weeks and females can become pregnant as early as 4 weeks.

This link has some questions you can ask a vet when you call to help you figure out whether or not they are cavy savvy: https://www.guinealynx.info/vet.html

The vet we go to now is also a dog and cat vet, yes. Sometimes we switch vets, though. Our vet centre has a couple of vets trained in different areas. Thank you for the facts and help!

 

[BabyBoomkin]

I just wanted to add... if your parents are concerned about the smell of the guinea pigs, have you considered changing their type of bedding? I personally use fleece with potty pads. The potty pads are placed in my pig's favorite potty spots and are changed daily, and my fleece liners are changed weekly. There is virtually no smell if you keep on top of things. My husband isn't a fan of animals and wouldn't hesitate to tell me he smells something off. I've even asked him, five days into a current cage liner's use, if he could smell anything and he's said no. It's something to consider. Fleece itself doesn't have an odor the way shavings do, and if you use and replace potty pads, you're removing probably 90% or more of the odor-causing waste each day. My potty pads and fleece liners are all machine washable and very easy to keep after. I just check them when I top up the pellets and give fresh hay, and spot clean the poo. If the potty pad feels damp at all or has an odor, out it comes and another goes in its place.

I mention this because I've owned pets before using normal bedding, and it just doesn't seem to absorb the odor. In fact, bedding such as shavings has its own odor. I could never seem to escape that pet-store smell, no matter how often I cleaned the cage. With fleece and the potty pads, I'm amazed at how little odor there is... and of course there's the added fun of making your cage as quirky and colorful as you like. There's a forum dedicated to fleece here if you're interested... and if you decide to try it out and find that the smell is greatly reduced, perhaps your parents would reconsider allowing the piggies into your home.

 

[Princess_Piggie]

@BabyBoomkin makes an excellent point, guinea pigs themselves are virtually scent free, it's the pee and poop that makes the smell. I totally agree about the 'pet store smell' that comes with bedding, I had the same smell lingering round my room until I switched to fleece. I use a combination of newspaper, then a towel, then two fleece layers and my room is scent free.

I know you're probably feeling very pressured right now on the subject of 'get them inside' because obviously, everyone telling you to. But I feel compelled to try and make the case again for your pets sake. If it's not good enough for a human, it's not good enough for your pets. Would you like to live outside with drafts and bad whether and constantly changing smells etc?

Unless your pigs are indoors, trust me, they can feel the wind and it makes them cold, regardless of how many towels, extra bedding you use, they'll feel it because there's no wall in between them and the weather.

They may not show it, but my guess is, they're stressed out there. They can't hear their owners voices for comfort, they have strange smells and sounds constantly, and they're vulnerable to all kinds of airborne bacteria floating around. They're vulnerable to spiders and insects getting into their hutch and infecting them. They're vulnerable to predatory animals getting to them, and you say they're at no risk, I'm sure that's what every pet owner says about outdoor pets until a predator attacked theirs.

I was involved in the thread someone else mentioned, where a girls pig was attacked by a rat and went in to shock, refusing to eat or drink or move. She had only let them outside because her dad said it would be okay, and it was only for play time too. Her sister heard a shriek from the pig, went outside and there was a rat attacking it.

I really hope you can find a way to control your odor issue for your parents, because outside piggies aren't safe piggies. You can also get stacked C&C cages just like a hutch if space is an issue.

 

[VanillaTwilight]

I just wanted to add... if your parents are concerned about the smell of the guinea pigs, have you considered changing their type of bedding? I personally use fleece with potty pads. The potty pads are placed in my pig's favorite potty spots and are changed daily, and my fleece liners are changed weekly. There is virtually no smell if you keep on top of things. My husband isn't a fan of animals and wouldn't hesitate to tell me he smells something off. I've even asked him, five days into a current cage liner's use, if he could smell anything and he's said no. It's something to consider. Fleece itself doesn't have an odor the way shavings do, and if you use and replace potty pads, you're removing probably 90% or more of the odor-causing waste each day. My potty pads and fleece liners are all machine washable and very easy to keep after. I just check them when I top up the pellets and give fresh hay, and spot clean the poo. If the potty pad feels damp at all or has an odor, out it comes and another goes in its place.

I mention this because I've owned pets before using normal bedding, and it just doesn't seem to absorb the odor. In fact, bedding such as shavings has its own odor. I could never seem to escape that pet-store smell, no matter how often I cleaned the cage. With fleece and the potty pads, I'm amazed at how little odor there is... and of course there's the added fun of making your cage as quirky and colorful as you like. There's a forum dedicated to fleece here if you're interested... and if you decide to try it out and find that the smell is greatly reduced, perhaps your parents would reconsider allowing the piggies into your home.

Thank you for taking the time to write that!

What bothers me about fleece is that my piggies would probably poop everywhere since they are not toilet trained and my parents wash the fleece if it's THAT mucked up. The bedding we use right now is newspaper, straw and hay. I've been looking for wood chip shops, but I haven't found any in my area yet. Our bedding starts to stink within a week, which I guess is useful but it does get pretty stinky. How long do you think it would be to toilet train your guinea pigs?

 

[VanillaTwilight]

@BabyBoomkin makes an excellent point, guinea pigs themselves are virtually scent free, it's the pee and poop that makes the smell. I totally agree about the 'pet store smell' that comes with bedding, I had the same smell lingering round my room until I switched to fleece. I use a combination of newspaper, then a towel, then two fleece layers and my room is scent free.

I know you're probably feeling very pressured right now on the subject of 'get them inside' because obviously, everyone telling you to. But I feel compelled to try and make the case again for your pets sake. If it's not good enough for a human, it's not good enough for your pets. Would you like to live outside with drafts and bad whether and constantly changing smells etc?

Unless your pigs are indoors, trust me, they can feel the wind and it makes them cold, regardless of how many towels, extra bedding you use, they'll feel it because there's no wall in between them and the weather.

They may not show it, but my guess is, they're stressed out there. They can't hear their owners voices for comfort, they have strange smells and sounds constantly, and they're vulnerable to all kinds of airborne bacteria floating around. They're vulnerable to spiders and insects getting into their hutch and infecting them. They're vulnerable to predatory animals getting to them, and you say they're at no risk, I'm sure that's what every pet owner says about outdoor pets until a predator attacked theirs.

I was involved in the thread someone else mentioned, where a girls pig was attacked by a rat and went in to shock, refusing to eat or drink or move. She had only let them outside because her dad said it would be okay, and it was only for play time too. Her sister heard a shriek from the pig, went outside and there was a rat attacking it.

I really hope you can find a way to control your odor issue for your parents, because outside piggies aren't safe piggies. You can also get stacked C&C cages just like a hutch if space is an issue.

Thanks for your long input and advice. It really helps.

Where do you think I'd put the cage if I could? My room is too small and the living room is also too small. The most appropriate (in size) space would be my balcony, unless I had two small cages and put one in my room and one in the living room.

 

[Schweitz]

Thanks for your long input and advice. It really helps.

Where do you think I'd put the cage if I could? My room is too small and the living room is also too small. The most appropriate (in size) space would be my balcony, unless I had two small cages and put one in my room and one in the living room.

There's no room at all in you room? If you had a spare bed in your room you could put the cage on top of that. That's what I did. Sometimes rearranging furniture makes more room. You only need enough room to fit a twin bed (actually less than that) so if you could make the space... Sorry I get your situation it's not fun.

 

[Princess_Piggie]

Would you have the space to make a 2x4 c&c? If so, you can stack another one on top.

I also see pictures of cages sometimes that are staggered, so they sort of fit in with furniture like a jigsaw puzzle. C&C is great because you can fit it to your needs, make it L shaped, whatever.

With regards to toilet training your guinea pigs, my girls aren't toilet trained, but they only really 'do their business' in the corners, and under their hidey, so it's a pretty quick clean out. I just use a rubber glove to scoop all the poop out, shake all the hay off outside and then chuck it in the washing machine. I change my fleece every 3 days as well, which probably contributes a lot towards me having a scent free room. Most change it every week. I'm just exceptionally paranoid about my girls getting bumblefoot so the cage is always squeaky clean to prevent it haha!

 

[Piggyziggy]

i know that your having trouble with them moving inside as mine are in a hutch in the garage but my parents want to move them outside but they haven't said anything for 2 weeks about moving them outside. This morning next doors cat was trying to push trough a small gap 3cm wide in the garage. It then climbed on the roof when it saw me come outside. I want to move mine into a c&c cage inside. I have heard it imroves thier personality and they come out of thier shell and of course they will be safer and happier.
As i said i know you can't bring them inside at this point but just be aware of these pionts shown on this website. It based on australia and its weather.
(broken link removed)
hope it helps.
Can i ask you something? Do you want to house them inside or is it just your parents who wont let you?
good luck!!!

 

[Traysea]

Could you possibly fit a 2x3 cage in your room? You could double stack it so they can be separated. Also try looking for pine horse stall pellets or pine horse stall shavings. Those would be much cheaper than small animal bedding and more effective for odor control in the house than fleece or newspaper and straw.

Is there a reason why you can't clean the cage more than once a week? Would you be able to clean the cage twice a week if they were inside?

 

[pigger123]

A 2x3 C&C cage is only 39"x44" and is the amount of space necessary for one piggy. If you have a 1 1/2 by 3 2/3 foot space, you could stack two, as Traysea said. I know I would rather give up a piece of furniture than have pigs living in an outdoor hutch and a cardboard box.

As for bedding, newspaper and hay are both notorious for smelling bad quickly, and straw has been known to poke piggies. I would use fleece with a wood stove pellet kitchen area. Wood pellets are cheap at only $3-6 for a 40 lb bag, and fleece is cheap for the long run. Many people find that this combo is excellent at eliminating odor. Piggies usually can't really be "litter trained", but they will sometimes use mostly one area as their toilet. With a kitchen, you have the greatest chance of them using the wood pellet area for a toilet, since that is where their food, hay, and water would be.

 

[Traysea]

A 2x3 is the acceptable minimum for 2 pigs as per the cage store website: https://www.guineapigcagesstore.com/candc-cage-small#.UqkOWaVSFhA

Heck, in this situation I'd even go as far as to say a 2x2 with pine horse stall pellets would keep the odor down and is probably more square footage than his hutch or the average store bought cage.

 

[pigger123]

A 2x3 is the acceptable minimum for 2 pigs as per the cage store website: https://www.guineapigcagesstore.com/candc-cage-small#.UqkOWaVSFhA

Heck, in this situation I'd even go as far as to say a 2x2 with pine horse stall pellets would keep the odor down and is probably more square footage than his hutch or the average store bought cage.

Yes, a 2x3 is acceptable for 2 pigs, but I didn't bother mentioning that since the male can't be neutered and therefore they will have to live separately.

 

[Traysea]

I believe he has three total pigs, or it might be 4. I was thinking you were saying a 2x3 would be too small!

 

[pigger123]

Ah yes, apparently he owns two and is taking care of two for a friend. I suddenly wondered what the friend's pigs' living situation is. :O

 

[BabyBoomkin]

I should clarify: my pigs aren't toilet trained. I've learned where they prefer to do their business (usually around their food bowl, for some reason) and I put a potty pad there. I spot clean the cage every time I top up their hay/pellets and give them their veggies. I change the potty pad and pick up the poops. The fleece liner itself is replaced and washed about once a week.

The potty pad is the key to a stink-free cage, I think. If you put one down where your pigs seem to really do the majority of their business, it'll help a ton. If I didn't change out the potty pad or spot clean the cage, I'm sure it'd be pretty rank... but I keep after it. That's not hard to do with fleece. Poops are pretty obvious!

I've heard of some people that are able to train their piggies to use a litter box, but it's not something I've ever tried to do. The potty pad trick seems to work well for me, so that's what I stick with. Have you noticed whether your piggies prefer a certain spot in their cage where the concentration of poops and urine is higher? I've heard they prefer the areas where they eat and sleep. Those would be good places to put a potty pad, I would imagine.

*edited to add* I meant to quote the original poster's response to me. This post was meant in a response to that. Sorry, carry on!

 

[VanillaTwilight]

There's no room at all in you room? If you had a spare bed in your room you could put the cage on top of that. That's what I did. Sometimes rearranging furniture makes more room. You only need enough room to fit a twin bed (actually less than that) so if you could make the space... Sorry I get your situation it's not fun.

It's fine.

But seriously.. there is no room! Not even for a one-pig cage.:sad: